Helping My 3-Year-Old Get Through Her First Day Of Preschool

If you all have been keeping up with me on Instagram, then you know my 3-year-old experienced her first day of preschool!

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And she has been doing great ever since!

She has truly been loving her preschool and looks forward to going every day.

I’m so glad that I made the decision to enroll her in a preschool so that she can get a headstart for Pre-K and Kindergarten.

She is around other kids her age, learning the letters of the alphabet, and getting used to a school-like structure.

If you have been keeping up with my blog, then you know I have had a mini preschool series going on.

I have been sharing my tips on preparing my daughter for preschool as well as what to look for when choosing a preschool for your child.

I will link those two posts below if you all want to check those out.

• Preparing My 3 Year Old For Preschool
• What To Look For When Choosing A Preschool For A 3-Year-Old

And now that my daughter has made it through her first week of preschool, it is only right that I share how that went and offer some advice on what I did to help her get through her first day.

If you are interested in some tips on how to help your 3-year-old get through the first day of preschool, then just keep reading.

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What To Do When Your 3-Year-Old Is Having Separation Anxiety

Before I get into my tips for having a great first day of preschool, let’s talk about this.

What can you do when your child is experiencing separation anxiety when going to preschool?

This can be really tough for parents when they are trying to leave their child at school and they are crying and calling out for you.

This was actually a fear of mine with my daughter because she has never been in a school or daycare environment before so I didn’t know how she would react

Luckily she didn’t do any of that.

She was very shy and reserved when she walked in but that was to be expected since it was her first official day.

But overall, she was happy and excited to be going to school.

Even though my daughter did well on her first day, that doesn’t mean that other kids will.

In fact, when I was dropping my daughter off at her preschool, another family came in with their child who was in tears and completely hysterical about being left at school by themselves.

Which is completely understandable.

Imagine being left in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar people.

Especially when you are used to being in the familiarity of your home with your parents.

You would feel uncomfortable too.

But part of life is facing the uncomfortable sometimes.

And children do have to learn how to trust other adults and be in environments where their parents are not always around.

Because that is how they will grow as individuals.

Many resources suggest that when dropping your kid off at preschool, you should keep the goodbyes short.

This is good advice because obviously the longer you are in your child’s presence, the longer they may cause a fuss.

They also stress the importance of not sneaking away when their kids are not looking because kids need to see their parents leave and learn that they will come back.

I did my best to prepare my daughter for this day as best as I could and she had a great day because of it.

With that being said, let’s get into my tips on how I was able to help my 3-year-old get through her first day of preschool.

Helping My 3-Year-Old Get Through Her First Day Of Preschool

Visit/Explore Classroom Before First Day

So my first tip for helping your child get through their first day of preschool is to familiarize them with their classroom before their first day.

Don’t make their first day be the first day they also walk into their classroom for the first time.

When I was touring preschools, before settling on one, we were able to walk into the classroom that would be hers if she were to go.

My daughter was able to walk around and explore her classroom before starting which helped a lot.

Once we knew for sure that we were going to enroll her at a particular preschool, I brought her back with me when I registered her and let her see her classroom again.

I emphasized that this would be her classroom and that the next time she comes here, she will get to go to school for real.

So when the day came, she didn’t feel too uncomfortable because she had already seen the classroom before.

Bring A Favorite Comfort Item Of Theirs

My next tip is to bring a favorite item that is comforting to them.

As expected, my daughter was obviously nervous on her first day at preschool.

So what helped was bringing her favorite blanket.

This actually worked out in our favor because she had to bring a blanket to school anyway for naptime.

Something to ask your child’s teacher before the first day is if the children are allowed to bring a comfort item.

At my daughter’s school, each child is allowed to bring one small comfort item.

This item can be a blanket, a stuffed animal, or even a small pillow.

Allowing them to have something that brings them comfort makes the transition that much easier.

Create A Goodbye Ritual

So I mentioned above the importance of children seeing their parents leave and knowing that they will come back.

Saying goodbye is hard for any kid who is going to preschool for the first time so you want to try to make this as positive of an experience as possible.

A great way to create a positive goodbye experience is to create a positive goodbye ritual.

If you are trying to figure out where to start with creating a goodbye ritual, then I suggest starting with what you do at bedtime.

You all may or may not be familiar with my daughter’s bedtime routine.

• Read More: My 2-Year-Old Daughter’s Toddler Bedtime Routine

This bedtime routine was when she was 2, but we still pretty much follow it to this day even at 3 years old.

Every night when we put her to bed, there is a goodnight sequence that goes as follows:

• Big Hug
• Kiss on the cheek
• High Five
• Fist Bump Explosion

When she started preschool, we followed this same sequence on her first day before I left and have been doing it every day ever since.

Having this goodbye ritual in place puts her at ease and sets her up to have a good start to her day.

Start With Half Days Or Pick Up Early (If Possible)

In my previous post in which I talked about what to look for in a preschool, I mentioned that some preschools offer half days or part-time.

At the moment, my daughter is currently going part-time so she is only in school for half of a day.

We only did this because she has never been in a school environment before.

And I’m so glad that we made the decision to do this because it eases her into this atmosphere without completely overwhelming her.

Next month she will be transitioning to full time so she will be in preschool the majority of the day.

This transition should be relatively smooth once we switch her since she is already accustomed to her school.

If half days are not an option, then you might be able to pick up your kiddo a little earlier on their first day.

There is obviously a lot of anxiety for our kiddos around leaving them on the first day for what feels like to them a long time.

To help ease some of that anxiety for them that stems around us being gone for a long time is to come back a little sooner.

However, don’t make this a habit.

This is a great first-day tactic, not an everyday tactic.

Consider An After School Reward

And my last tip for helping my 3-year-old get through her first day of preschool was to offer her a reward after her first day.

This was actually a tip that I picked up from Parents.com.

They suggested creating a reward system for attending school daily.

Their suggestion was to give your child a sticker for every day that they attended school and if they finish a week with 5 stickers they get to pick out a treat.

This is a great suggestion and maybe one that I can implement later.

But for now, since I was trying to get through day 1 of preschool with my daughter so I offered her a chance to pick out something that she wanted to eat or drink.

She picked out something to drink and then at the end of the week, I took her out to eat at one of her favorite places.

You want to keep school as something that is positive for our kids so offering little rewards here and there will do that for them.

Your Turn

Well, that is how I helped my 3-year-old get through her first day of preschool. I want to hear from you all now. What are some of the things you did to help your children get through their first day of preschool? Let me know in the comments and while you are still here, check out my previous post below. Until next time!

• Read More: Teething Relief Tips I Use With My 14-Month-Old

Love,

Just Jass